Coal and a nice Farrell wine on menu for Labor Right supper club

A main course of support for the coal industry, accompanied by Labor right faction powerbroker Don Farrell’s premium South Australian wines, is on the menu for a dinner club of 20 Labor MPs and senators who aim to steer the party away from the Greens.

Ten News reported on Tuesday the “Otis Group” – named after the Canberra restaurant which serves as a meeting venue – had met without the knowledge of party leader Anthony Albanese.

At least nine of them are Labor frontbenchers.

Group member and South Australian Right faction powerbroker Don Farrell said it was a meeting of “good solid Labor people”.

“The Otis Group is just a group of Labor people who are interested in supporting coal workers,” he said.

Otis heavily features the veteran politician’s Farrell Wines, including his 2017 Clare Valley Riesling and the “The Godfather Too” 2017 Cabernet, on the list for $110 a bottle. The Farrell Wines website sells the Cabernet in a pack of six for $199.

Farrell, one of the most powerful figures in South Australian Labor, owns the winery in Sevenhill with his wife Nimfa.

EXCLUSIVE: We can reveal that a well-organised and powerful group of rebel Federal Labor MPs have been meeting and plotting behind the back of leader Anthony Albanese. And he didn’t know about it until our political editor @vanOnselenP broke the story. #auspolpic.twitter.com/pkKo5QhWfE

“At the end of the day, people were having a dinner,” he told Sky News.

“I don’t think it’s a big deal.”

Shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers, from the party’s right faction, also found out via the media.

“There’s nothing unusual about colleagues catching up for dinner, and there’s certainly nothing unusual about people getting together to talk about policy,” he said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison poked fun at the breakaway group.

“I don’t know if that’s Milo and Otis (1980s movie) or it’s just Otis or how many others there are involved in this,” the prime minister told reporters.

“But more than 20 Labor MPs getting together … I don’t think there’s a Lazy Susan at the Otis, but that tends to be the way things are done in the Labor Party.

“They go off to lunches, they make deals, and it seems the leader of the opposition has a few things to explain.”

– with AAP

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